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Past, Present & Future

Our village, Sant'Andrea in Percussina is perched on one of the first hills in Chianti and stands watch over the city of Florence. Most small towns tell big tales, some are documented while others are passed from one generation to the next. La Percussina's tales stretch back centuries going as far back as Dante's Inferno, Machiavelli's Prince (written on our street during his exile from Florence) & Calamandrei's La casa di Campagna (the country house).

Romances start with a spark (an idea), then ignites with oxygen (hard work) to then becomes a roaring fire.  La Percussina is the realized dream of Joe Mastrangelo (the spark) and Marta Santoro (the oxygen).  Growing up on different continents they both quickly realized that their family dinners were exactly same just in two different languages.  Food & laughter, along with good wine, shared with friends & family have driven their vision for La Percussina.  

 

They purchased La Percussina after driving past it every Sunday morning for 5 years to buy bread at a local store. The past 9 years what was a dormant farm has now been brought back to life. After spending the last decade splitting time between first Paris, then Zurich & Florence they have now moved back home. They now look forward to sharing their passions & building new friendships around the table at La Percussina.

La Percussina, La Pia & Il Contadino

La Percussina

Carved into the property's 6 acres of woodlands is a park that was created by the grandfather of Piero Calamandrei, one of the authors of the Italian constitution. The guidebook for the park's partial restoration are passages from his book La Casa di Campagna. Marta found the book in a small Parisian bookshop & the author's vivid description (now translated into English) of playing in the woods as child allows you to retrace his ~125 year old steps on a quiet walk in the woods.

La Pia

Joe's first walk through the then overgrown woods lead to a discovery by his young son. Peaking his head between two large fallen cypress trees he found a small grotto with collapsed vaulted ceilings. They would learn through town legend & Calamandrei's childhood memories, that the grotto was the "Prigione della Pia" or Pia's prison from Dante's Purgatory. Our wine is named in her honor & now you can sit in the original chair where she was chained centuries ago.

Il Contadino

Il Contadino means farmer in Italian. The bottom floor of the main residence were once livestock stalls (you can see the feeding trough in one room) & another room housed a stone wood fired bread oven. Now completely restored in our kitchen the oven is used for pig roasts, pizza making & small batch bread making in the fall & winter. Our olive oil honors the farmers who came before us & our label was our sons 8th grade art project.

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